Texas execution stay a wise move

Copyright 2012: Houston Chronicle

Published 5:41 pm, Monday, July 30, 2012

Last Friday, capping a flurry of activity, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to convicted murderer Marcus Druery, who had been scheduled to be put to death tomorrow for a Brazos County murder and robbery in 2002.

At issue was Druery's mental competency to understand the reason for his execution. Both state and private mental health professionals had diagnosed Druery as severely psychotic and therefore incompetent to be executed. But last Tuesday, Brazos County District Judge J. D. Langley denied a motion to hold a full hearing on Druery's competency.

On Wednesday, Kate Black, Druery's attorney, stating that her client's execution "would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel or unusual punishment," appealed that denial to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that her client "suffers from a psychotic disorder that renders him incompetent to be executed." Two days later, the court stayed the execution, writing that it had "determined that further review is necessary."

We applaud the court's decision, as far as it goes. We fervently hope that their review will persuade the justices to remand the case back to the Brazos County court for a competency hearing. Execution is irrevocable, and should never be invoked as long as a shred of doubt exists as to its constitutionality in any given case.

Prosecutors are not contesting the diagnosis of schizophrenia, nor claiming that Druery is malingering. They argue that despite his mental illness, he is competent for execution. But no court has ever ruled on Druery's competency. His attorneys are simply asking that their client not be put to death until they have had a chance to demonstrate, in a full and fair hearing, that he is not competent to be executed.

There seems to be ample evidence to at least allow them to make their case. Over the years, Druery's medical records, communications and letters have provided vivid insights into his mental state: Prison medical health staff (from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston, which provides mental health services for Texas prisons) have diagnosed Druery as schizophrenic, describing him over the years as confused, hearing voices, illogical and oblivious to his problems.

He has written hundreds of letters, full of bizarre charges and assertions, such as one to prison officials, in which he wrote, "In 2009, I was stabbed and cut with razors. I do not know what month. My food was mixed with feces, urine and insects … someone is trying to assassinate me."

This should not be a difficult call: The court of criminal appeals has taken the first step.

We fervently hope that it will now require the Brazos County court to hold a competency hearing. The alternative, to execute a human being who may not even understand why he is being executed, would be barbaric.